THE 'JB p l o u g h -¿ T fif- ''WÍM, Cannon Beach 1 am in an unpleasant mood this month Recent tastings I have gone to have piqued my ire on an issue that has been brewing lor quite a while now The wine industry is a quirky machine and little bumps in the road can be noticeable 1 here is something else that has my dander up as well and perhaps 1 should address that problem first, just so you have an idea ol where I am coming from. At the writing of this column the beloved Boston Red Sox are a woeful 3-14 (the worst start in the club’s 96 year history) and are easily the laughing stock of major league baseball. The problem is that there is far more than just one problem that needs immediate solving The starting pitching rotation has an earned run average of around 6.00, the defense (or lack thereof) averages nearly two errors per game, second baseman Wil C ordero couldn t throw my grandmother out at the plate and Mike Stanley can t throw anyone out at second, the supposedly learsome lineup is mostly hitting a buck and change in this year ol the juiced ball, Tim Wakefield is 2-10 since the 14-1 start last year and Kevin Mitchell spends way and I mean WAY too much time at the bulfet table I am not a Cubs fan. 1 am used to the Sox finding some stupendous way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a late post season game I am not used to being out of the race 17 games into the season. Even the nicest bottle ol wine can draw my criticism when 1 see the Sox getting spanked by second division teams like the Rangers and the Royals The real issue 1 want address is the size of wines that are being produced these days Wines are having a tendency to get bigger and I am not talking about the size of the bottles When I refer to the size of the wine, I am talking about the sensation one experiences from the concentration of fruit, oak and assorted flavors the wine carries Admittedly this problem may be more isolated than 1 know since the low wages paid by the Edge don’t permit me to go on wild wine buy ing trips. But speaking from the perspective of someone who drinks a good amount of West Coast wines there seems to be a disconcerting pattern emerging over the past few years and most notably over the past two years Now, bigness in a wine is not necessarily a bad quality In fact it can be a darned admirable one. When a wine becomes too big, that is, when the size of the wine intrudes on the qualities that make the wine desirable in the first place; then there is a problem Wines are not just about expansive flavors. Subtleties and nuances are often times what separate great wines from merely good wines. Perhaps the most vivid and closest to home example can be found in Oregon’s Pinot noir. Pinot noir is the greatest ol the wine grapes Finesse, subtlety and grace with power aie what Pinot noir is all about. This wine is meant to have delicate touches that highlight big, bright fruits and moderate amounts of oak. The taste of an excellent Pinot noir should leave you, alter each taste, knowing what the flavors are but having a hard time describing the way they combine and linger In the ‘90s a bigger style of Pinot has fallen into lavor both with a certain number of producers and with many consumers (thus ensuring the rise of this particular style) Prior to fermentation a wine maker can affect the “size of the wine with the time ol harvest and with the length of cold soaking the fruit gets in the fermenter prior to being inoculated with yeast. After fermentation the amount of new oak barrels and the length of time the wine spends in those barrels will also play a role in the flavors ol the wine. Bigger wines will, generally, have gone through longer cold soaks (3-5 days is an average soak time for Pinot noir) and will be in new oak for a longer period of time. This style is the style which is now the darling of the media, wine judgings and with consumers who are buying more expensive wines. Despite my disgruntledness about the style I actually do find the quality of the winemaking to be admirable, even top-notch, in many of these wines. However, the big flavors are mostly forward flavors that overwhelm the exceptional qualities that make the wine interesting What captures the interest of people is the stunning level of flavor the wine exhibits initially. The wines are so huge that in judgings and sconngs the best made of these monsters will often fare better than a well composed wine that lacks the sledge hammer effect. The well composed wine will be the wine that one would find to go better with food (the real purpose of wine) and be a more interesting drink over the long haul. With Pinot noir the best statement the wine can make docs not involve its potential to knock you down with flavor. If you want that in a wine drink a Cabernet, a Merlot or a Zinfandel. That is if Zinfandel still tasted like Zinfandel Zinfandel is the lonely child of the wine world. This w ine has gone through various stages of production in its briel (by wine standards) market existence In the late '70s and into the 80s Zinfandel was turned into the pink wine that America loved White Zin was until 1995 the highest sales volume wine of any wine in America. In the late ’80s as wineries’ contract with Zinfandel vineyards expired some “rogue” wineries came in and purchased the grapes for the purpose of making premium red wine (thus offering the growers more dollars per ton). Red Zinfandel is by its very nature a big, brambly wine with lots of heady flavors W hen well made and with the use of good fruit there is the potential for excellence, subtlety and nice balance. With the ‘93 vintage some California producers started to push the alcohol levels in their Zins into the high 14 and 15% ranges. With the 1994 vintage some wineries are pushing Port-like levels of 16 and 17%. This makes for eyebrow seanng stuff While some hard-core Zin fans will tell you that a balance is still being struck between the concentration for fruit, oak, tannins and alcohol 1 say that a good wine is being bastardized for sensationalism I mean, what are you going to eat with this stuff and how much ol it are you really going to want to drink? It is as if Zin went from light, semi­ sweet pink wine right to hide-the-kids-away monster beverage with hardly a stop in between. My worry is that this stylistic endeavor is a reflection ol what is going on with our society. Have we gotten to the point where immediate gratification is such a part of our lifestyles that even things that are based upon subtlety are doomed to suffer? Have we been too easily willing to sacrifice nuance lor flash, in the rush to live our e-mail oriented existences? Is the rush lor things that are purportedly interesting in and of themselves robbing us ol the things that actually make life interesting? Perhaps the big wines are merely a fad and will pass as people settle in on a more conventional style. 1 worry that they become the virtual reality, the action/adventure movies, the fast food of our time Wine can make life a lot more interesting. But it starts within each of us Books, knowledge, poetry, music, large bodies of water, time spent alone, etc., can all be interesting but they can only make you more interesting il you expose yoursell to them and think about and reflect upon them Wine is the same way. The interest and intrigue lies within the reflection you have upon it, not whether it made you look like the guy in the sneaker ad In the spirit of becoming more interesting, head on down to the good Reverend's book store with a bottle of wine (and a Bud or two lor the proprietor), buy a book and sit around the wood stove I know that hours of drinking with Mr Hulls made me a more interesting person. 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GRAPHICS, COMMERCIAL ART, ARCHITECTURAL RENDERINGS A CUSTOM FRAMING 1 SERVING YOUR AESTHETIC NEEDS SINCE *1882 WINTER HOURS: BEST BY APPOINTMENT 1235 S. HEMLOCK Cannon Beach 8 3 5 M a n z a n ita A v e n u e P.0. Box 301 Manzanita, Oregon 97130 7AM — 2PM ao o 1 1 1 3 ! -C 1 IN S T O C K T b . b ~ l o i Or.»oo W l»< ■cy in » o n ~ i m . b R K « d u d * « M i *uwtasting • vents, i Humman datum ifrim d y aarvtoa. c t 1 503 • 368 • 7518 Breakfast 4t Lunch Closed M on. 4c Tues. mrTl a b 4 • tovxli brtdi ol ’ n (ra* tte £ WAY t Telephone (503) 436-2230 Sorting through the family laundry, one of my sons' old I -shirts surfaces, so ratty, I wonder if it even deserves washing It is covered with rips and holes, frayed on the edges, well worn but still arrogantly sporting its bold red NO FEAR logo. 1 his is the shirt I begged my 12 year old not to wear to school anymore, and he begged me right back to be allowed to wear it. You see, it was a hand-me-down from his High School brother, and it is cool, still somewhat white and his favorite shirt etc., etc. Oh, the awesome power of an absolutely understood adolescent icon, not to be underestimated by those on the other side of the age line I looked again at the logo, and pondered the concept ol no fear , how it probably originated in the buzzing mind of a young male entrepreneur looking for just the right catch phrase to make his fortune in the youth fad market. Judging by how much extra one of these plain white T-shirts costs, I think he succeeded ‘No Fear' could be viewed in two ways, as an "In-Your-Face” sort of statement that carries the "I am young, invincible, untamed, get out of my way” kind of attitude, or the I am brave, I can do anything because fear doesn’t get in my way” philosophy. I have wondered, each time I see these words on an article of clothing, which kind of meaning the wearer wants to project, if either We were raised in fear, many of us, in the place where looming large was the judgment of God, the Devil s Temptations and the danger of Eternal Hell. This holy trinity of fears operated as a powerful mechanism for social control. Fear is the biggest weapon around, but it has mixed results. What if, in fact, we became a species of no fear, or maybe less fear? It has been pointed out to me that a certain amount ol fear is healthy, and after all, we are born with innate fears; the fear of falling, the fear of abandonment and the fear of death Ominous words, those. Out of these primary fears all other secondary' fears emanate like a web from a spider Some fears are useful, some debilitating. We spend our lifetimes navigating the tightrope between them One morning at work, I looked up from the monotony ol the day, and into the ravaged face of a woman who works nearby, someone I am only superficially aquainted with It took a moment for me to register what was wrong with her face The heavy, frightening concept hit me that this woman had probably been beaten up, and makeup was hiding a lot. Body language and emotional signals made me suspect this to have been domestic violence. She was in shock, but functioning as though the act ol buying a soft rabbit for her new grandchild would assuage the horrid reality of her life She walked away, and I was left with the confusion of what to say, what to do. Throughout this day I wondered, from the point of view of one not stuck in such a situation, why would a person stay ’ I am not her, 1 don’t carry her experience or her fears I can hardly imagine her life, yet I do know the fear of the unknow n, the fear of others’ opinions and the fear of being alone. I would pin the parent ol these as the fear of abandonment I can recognize that one a mile off. it is an old friend 1 ache for this beaten woman whose self esteem barely breaths beneath her physical and emotional wounds Later, I am folding the clean laundry I here il is again, the rugged T-shirt come back around asking me to decide its fate I only set it aside, still oscillating I could so easily just make it disappear into the ragbag Possibly it would never be missed I can't though, because that feels dishonest Maybe this poor old remnant has given my boys a slight lift of courage in its small way It shouldn’t matter much against (he vastness ol life s difficult choices if a 12 year old goes to school and his teachers think Ins mother doesn’t take care of him. My own tears arc in this mix At some point one has to let go, and this requires courage too